Category: Wheels

Let’s talk about speed

The most joy and demanding style to do it are by sliding. There is a variety of sliding styles. They go from “nice” to “sick” depending on the speed you use to perform it. The next step is going faster and faster because downhill longboarding is all about the speed.

The maximum speed is not that fast, it comes up to about 65mph (104km/h), and crossing 80mph (128km/h) if you want to break the world speed record on a longboard. This speed may seem slow if you are riding a motorbike or driving a car down the highway, but the same speed when you are boarding out in the open, with nothing to grip on feels fast, quite fast.

If you compare the medium speed of downhill longboarding to other extreme board sports like surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, etc., you will notice that downhill longboarding is by far faster than the others. And let’s remember that beneath the longboard runs hard, irregular, painful pavement as opposed to water or snow. Also, the tight high speed turns, the changing slope, and you got yourself an ultimate sport packed with adrenaline even before you uncover the hidden treasure – racing.

Yes, competition… There is nothing more gratifying and adrenaline injecting than crossing the finish line first after a tight fight with another person. If you are good enough, the competition will express the best out of you, the performance, the control, the focus and the adrenaline rush. In the heat of a battle you will do things you thought impossible, and if you survive without a fall, your mind will register it under “definitely can be done” and reward you with a massive rush of adrenaline…next time your borders will be wider.

How dangerous is it?

It all depends if you are well protected (a high-quality helmet, a suit and so on) or not. If you are, you will have to crash badly to injure yourself seriously. But if you do downhill longboarding in your short pants and a T-shirt you can harm yourself, especially if you are going fast. So, in order to lower your injury possibilities, you need to adjust your safety gear to what are you going to perform or how extreme it’s going to be. If you do it well enough, longboarding will prove to be a pretty safe extreme sport. The most serious hazard will be oncoming cars changing their lanes (certainly in pro racing the road is closed for traffic).

How to start?

Longboarding is highly available and easy to start- just get on the board and go.
You don’t have to wait for some rare weather conditions or any particular season, just go and skate.
After learning the basics, it is extremely recommended to get a good grip on the breaking method before you start downhill longboarding. Many beginners are moved to go straight to downhill without gaining sufficient control skills and subsequently pay for it with pain.
Eventually, when you are in complete control of your speed, you will probably want to go into racing to challenge other adrenalin junkies like yourself.